GUY MANNING: TALL STORIES FOR SMALL CHILDREN

Guy Manning´s first CD is interesting, but quite different from his latter output I love so much. This is basicly a singer/songwriter record, mostly folkish, done in the vocal/acoustic guitar mode most of the time. The notable exception is the opener The Last Psalm, a terrific prog rock track that is one of his very best songs ever. Here we have a good example of what he would do in his future works (i.e. great instrumental arrangement to go with the song, with every instrument coming in and out at the right moment, building a fine climax). Not that the other songs here are bad, far from that. But as I said before, they are mostly acoustic affairs, excellent if you like folk tunes with a few sparse keys and percussion bits to add.

I guess my problem here is that english is not my native language and I have some difficult to grab the meaning of the lyrics in this style, while on his later works Manning´s music was as important as the words and you can appreciate his CDs without having to fully understand the text. There is not much variety here, at least not as much as I´m used since Anser´s Tree. So, in the end this a too long CD (69 minutes in all) to hold my atention in just one listen. Tall Stories For Small Children is better appreciated when you listen to it in small doses, when you can enjoy every track for its own sake. The weak production does not help either.

In the end I found this album to be a very promising start for a great and prolific songwriter. All the basic elements of his famous sound are already here and he would develop them greatly over the next few years culminating with masterpieces like Ten and Margaret´s Children.

A good beginning. 3 stars.